There are certain corners of the internet (or IMDB message boards) — ones we usually dare not venture to — where nerds battle it out over which comic book movie this summer was better: Joss Whedon's record breaking "The Avengers" or Christopher Nolan's epic finale "The Dark Knight Rises." And now, Nolan's regular director of photography, Wally Pfister, has thrown another provocative statement into the ring with his own unbridled assessment of the smash-hit Marvel movie.
Sitting down the Sarasota Herald Tribune, he was asked about what the most important element was when shooting a movie. "What’s really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn’t support the story," he said. "I thought 'The Avengers' was an appalling film. They’d shoot from some odd angle and I’d think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling."
Oh, burn. We suppose Seamus McGarvey ("We Need To Talk About Kevin," "Anna Karenina"), the very accomplished, Oscar-nominated cinematographer on "The Avengers," won't be exchanging holiday greetings with Pfister. But when he wasn't taking down the biggest movie of the year, Pfister teased what we might expect from his directorial debut. The hush-hush movie is being produced by his buddy Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas, and of course, details have been kept strictly under wraps. "It’s a present-day science fiction film, a fairly big concept. It’s bigger budget — not as big as 'Batman,' but not independent," he offered about the untitled film that will shoot early next year.
Finally, what's the movie that was his favorite to shoot? "I think probably the most artistically fulfilling was 'The Prestige.' It was fun to shoot a period piece, to create a world," he said. "But I also enjoyed the scope of 'Inception.' I was able to capture things the way I saw them in my head and I felt like I’d matured as a cinematographer. Of the Batman films I liked my work best in the last one, of course, because anything I felt I’d done wrong on each one, I’d right on the next one."
So there you have it, but we reckon that Pfister is about the feel the very heavy online wrath of some devoted Marvel fans.
